2018 Government Steering Committee Elections
To access past OGP Steering Committee Elections results, please click here.
Results of the 2018 Steering Committee Elections
In 2018, four seats became vacant in the OGP Steering Committee (SC), with Indonesia rotating off after serving two consecutive terms, and Chile, France, Romania finishing their current terms. A call for candidacy statements for the 2018 elections was launched by the Support Unit on January 26 and remained open until March 12.
Four governments -Argentina, France, Nigeria and Romania- submitted their candidacy to join the SC in 2018, with France and Romania running for a second consecutive term. Letters of intent from each candidate can be found in the table below. As outlined in the Articles of Governance, the Governance and Leadership Subcommittee (GL) reviewed the list of candidates, and resolved to endorse the four candidates who will serve 3-year terms beginning in 2018. The new SC members will be invited to join the July SC meetings as observers in Tbilisi, Georgia, before they officially begin their SC terms on October 1.
| Country | OGP Electoral Region | Ministerial Representative | 2018 Letter of Intent to join the SC |
| Argentina | Americas | Andres Horacio Ibarra, Minister of Modernization | Argentina LOI |
| France | Europe | Mounir Mahjoubi, Minister of State for the Digital Sector | France LOI |
| Nigeria | Africa | Abubakar Malami, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice | Nigeria LOI |
| Romania | Europe | Ioana-Andreea Lambru, Secretary General of the Government | Romania LOI |
Steering Committee Co-Chairmanship Election
The leadership body of the Steering Committee – the Governance and Leadership Subcommittee (GL) – is comprised of a revolving four-member co-chairmanship team which is elected by the entire SC for two-year terms. The GL includes a lead chair and a support (or incoming) chair from government and civil society. The support chairs assume the role of lead chairs during their second year, when new support chairs are elected.
All SC members, including newly elected, may run for SC Co-Chairmanship elections in 2018. Should there be more than one candidate, voting by secret ballot will take place in person at the SC meeting during the Georgia Global Summit in mid July. Candidates that receive the most number of votes will be elected.
SC members who are interested in running should submit a letter of candidacy responding to the following guiding questions to jaime.mercado@opengovpartne
Co-chair government candidacy statement guiding questions – Revised May 2018
- What priorities will your government drive during its OGP chairmanship to advance OGP goals?
- How will your government demonstrate leadership of OGP at the international level during your chairmanship, and what actions can it take to foster a more cohesive leadership body within the Steering Committee?
- How do you plan to further advance your domestic open government agenda and lead by example during your chairmanship role?
- Which Ministry will lead your OGP chairmanship (if different from current OGP Ministry)? How do you envision the role and involvement of other government bodies, including your head of state/government, foreign ministry and diplomatic networks, and other ministries to advance your OGP priorities and promote OGP globally?
2018 Steering Committee Elections
Resolution of the Governance and Leadership Subcommittee on the 2018 Steering Committee Elections
17 January 2018
The Governance and Leadership Subcommittee (GL) recognizes the vital leadership of the OGP Steering Committee, and the importance of recruiting strong candidates to replace outgoing Steering Committee members. The elections to the Steering Committee are a critical annual process to ensure this takes places.
The Governance and Leadership Subcommittee (GL) further recognizes the importance of the annual required country financial contributions to OGP and the central role that these play for the financial sustainability of the partnership. It also recognizes that the OGP Articles of Governance indicate the following regarding a country’s eligibility to run, or vote in the Steering Committee elections:
Governments that for two successive years have not made financial contributions to OGP at or above the minimum amount for their income tier will not be eligible to run for a seat on the OGP Steering Committee or participate in any formal vote of OGP participants, unless there are exceptional circumstances. This exception would be if the Support Unit, in consultation with the Governance and Leadership subcommittee, determines that there are legitimate reasons for a government’s failure to contribute that the government is making a concerted effort to overcome.
In accordance with this clause, a total of 36 countries¹, that would otherwise be eligible to run and vote in the upcoming 2018 Steering Committee elections, would not be able to do so having not made financial contributions to OGP for the past two consecutive years. GL recognizes that upholding this rule would exclude close to half of OGP members from participating in the 2018 Steering Committee elections.
In view of the high number of potentially excluded participants, and in the spirit of ensuring a credible democratic elections process, the GL hereby approves that for the 2018 elections², all participating OGP countries³ are permitted to cast a vote. In the spirit of transparency, as well as fairness to countries that have contributed, the list of countries that have not made contributions but are voting will be made explicit in the 2018 elections memo that is sent to all countries. Furthermore, only those countries that have adhered to the OGP Articles of Governance and Steering Committee eligibility criteria, including on making financial contributions –unless evidence of exceptional circumstances is provided– will be able to run for a seat in the Steering Committee.
The GL will request the full OGP Steering Committee to make a decision on a policy for elections from 2019 onwards before the end of 2018.
The Steering Committee (SC) government elections will take place in the first half of 2018. The information below presents the criteria to run for SC membership, and the timeline for the election process for government SC members and rotation of the SC co-chairs.
Four SC government seats will open in 2018 as the terms of Chile, France, Indonesia and Romania end. Indonesia has served two terms already and is not eligible to stand for election again. Chile, France and Romania are allowed to run for reelection for a second term. If they wish to run for the SC then they should follow the candidacy process and meet the eligibility criteria outlined below.
Criteria to Run for SC Election:
As per the September 2017 SC decision, governments who wish to run for SC election must have the following:
- Improved or maintained their eligibility score since submitting a letter of intent to join OGP;
- Published all OGP required documents (action plans, self-assessment reports, etc.) within four months of the agreed deadlines;
- Acted in accordance with the Open Government Declaration;
- Acted in accordance with OGP process for the most recent completed NAP cycle;
- Meet the minimum OGP Participation and Co-creation Standards;
In addition to the above requirements, current SC members running for reelection must have the following:
- Provided financial support to OGP (except in cases of extreme financial hardship); and
- Attended and participated actively in SC meetings and subcommittee meetings, with ministerial level participation in the required meetings.
Per the Articles of Governance, the Steering Committee will review and approve the list of candidates before voting begins.
Regional Balance
Per the Articles of Governance, the SC should be comprised of a minimum of one and a maximum of four governments from each of the four regions (Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe). All OGP participating governments4 participate in the election of all government SC members. Each participating government has one vote5. If there are insufficient candidates from each region to meet the regional quotas then the government with the next highest number of votes will join the SC, regardless of region. Governments unsure of their regional classification can consult this page at the UN Statistics Division for clarification: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm.
| SC members | Current Term Ends | Eligible for reelection? |
|
Africa
|
||
| 1. South Africa | 2020 | No |
|
Americas
|
||
| 1. Canada | 2020 | Yes |
| 2. Chile | 2018 | Yes |
| 3. Mexico | 2019 | No |
|
Asia
|
||
| 1. Georgia | 2019 | Yes |
| 2. Indonesia | 2018 | No |
| 3. South Korea | 2020 | Yes |
|
Europe
|
||
| 1. Croatia | 2019 | No |
| 2. France | 2018 | Yes |
| 3. Italy | 2020 | Yes |
| 4. Romania | 2018 | Yes |
Process to submit candidacy
Eligible governments must submit a letter of candidacy addressed to the four OGP co-chairs (see here) and should include details of the government candidate, its track record in open government related issues, a statement of intent on how it plans to contribute to OGP’s leadership, what strengths it would bring to the SC, and the time it is able to devote to the work of OGP. The deadline for submissions is March 12, 2018. Please submit letters to jaime.mercado@opengovpartnership.org
SC Co-Chairmanship Election and Rotation
All SC members, including newly elected, may run for SC Co-Chairmanship elections. SC members who are interested in running for co-chairs should submit a letter of candidacy outlining their proposed agendas should they be elected. As per the timeline below, the deadline for candidates to submit candidacy statements will be June 15. For the 2018 co-chair rotation, voting by secret ballot will take place in person at the SC meetings during the Georgia Global Summit in mid July. Candidates that receive the most number of votes will be elected.
Timeline for the 2018 Elections and Rotation:
| Date | Process Step |
| January 17 | GL approves elections timeline |
| January 26 | Support Unit publishes timeline and process to run, and sends a message to all participating OGP governments with details about the election |
| March 12 | Deadline for governments to submit letters of intent to run for the SC |
| March 13-19 | GL reviews and approves list of candidates in accordance to Articles of Governance |
| March 20 | Support Unit announces candidates and sends list of candidates to all OGP |
| March 20 – April 22 | Voting period through secret ballot (see below) |
| April 23 | New SC members announced |
| June 15 | Deadline for new and current SC members to indicate their interest to run for Co-Chairs by submitting letter of intent outlining their proposed agenda |
| July TBD | SC votes to elect incoming co-chair through secret ballot at the SC meeting to be held during the Georgia Global Summit (July 16-19); Incoming co-chairs for 2018-2019 are announced |
| October 1 | SC chairs and new members rotate |
Voting procedure and scoring
As with previous years, all governments will be sent a complete list of candidate governments in advance of the voting period (by email), and will have four weeks to complete their ballot online. Governments must rank their preferred candidates from first to last, but do not need to rank all options. The elections process is administered by an independent company, Everyone Counts. Ballots are secret and will not be published or shared. The Support Unit only receives the final results.
The scoring system for this election is called Borda in which each voter ranks their preferences. For the example illustrated below, where there are 6 candidates, the top-ranked candidate gets 6 points, the second place gets 5 points, third place gets 4 points, and so on for as many candidates as the voter ranks.
Example for illustration purposes only:
| Ranking (by voter) | Candidate | Points |
| 1st | Candidate A | 6 |
| 2nd | Candidate B | 5 |
| 3rd | Candidate C | 4 |
| 4th | Candidate D | 3 |
| 5th | Candidate E | 2 |
| 6th | Candidate F | 1 |
If the voter chooses to only rank the top three candidates in the same order, Candidate A would still get 6 points, Candidate B gets 5, and Candidate C gets 4. Candidates D-F would not get any points from that particular voter. Once the election closes, all points are added up and the candidate with the most points gets elected (after accounting for the regional balance mechanism).
If there is a tie between two candidates, the tie will be broken by determining which candidate received the majority of first-place votes. For example, if two candidates were both awarded 320 points, but one candidate got 15 first-place votes and the other got 14, the one with 15 first-place votes will win.
If you have questions, please contact Jaime Mercado (jaime.mercado@opengovpartnership.org) or your Support Unit contact.